Dismay over Oaxaca zócalo renovation

The main plaza – or zócalo - has been the spirited heart of Oaxaca for almost five hundred years, since the city was first mapped out by Alonso Garcia Bravo early in the sixteenth century.

Then imagine everyone’s surprise when a fortnight ago workmen began jackhammering out the paved walking areas, removing all the grass and gutting the flowerbeds as part of a grand “re-design”. The Alameda (an adjacent plaza) and the atrium of the nearby cathedral are also affected.

As the dust began to settle, surprise quickly turned to alarm as the sheer scale of the project became clear to the Unconsulted. To any observer, the visual impact is striking.  

The canopy of towering Indian laurel trees that shade the plaza is still there, although there is some confusion as to its eventual fate. The roots of one specimen were hacked so severely that it toppled onto the Palacio del Gobierno.

The exact nature of the re-development remain somewhat of a mystery. Some reports suggest the previously shady and lush plaza will go the same way as the rather austere garden that fronts the Dominican church of Santo Domingo five blocks north of the zócalo on Calle Alcalá. Others say the changes will be slight.

“What bothered Oaxaqueños was that the first public meeting took place the day the bulldozers arrived,” Ron Mader told me. “The developers underestimated the affection Oaxaqueños have for the endearing, albeit non-endemic, Indian laurel trees.”

Ron will be continually updating his zócalo page during the work, which is scheduled to finish in time for the Guelaguetza festival in July. Locals are more sceptical; even some workmen on the project were overheard to suggest December’s Noche de Rabanos as a more likely completion date.

The authorities seem to have been unprepared for the largely stinging reaction from residents and startled tourists. Work was temporarily halted this week, pending an inspection by officials from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH).

Whatever is in store for the zócalo, city planners appear not to have understood that public space isn’t something that is simply created on the architect’s drawing board, but develops over time as a result of the interaction of complex social and commercial relationships – none more so than in Oaxaca’s main plaza – for centuries a focal point where people of different cultures have intermingled.

Check out Ron’s Planeta.com website, which also features a very handy guide to 30+ Things to do in Oaxaca.

Filed in: Oaxaca City